Marcol, Advent buy German care home specialist

Real estate investor Marcol has teamed up with Advent International for what the firms say is Germany’s largest private equity deal this year.

London-based real estate investment firm Marcol has completed the purchase of Germany’s largest care home owner and operator, MEDIAN Kliniken, in a joint partnership with global private equity firm Advent International.

The transaction, which has been approved by the European Commission, is the largest private equity deal done in Germany this year, Marcol said in a statement.

Marcol, which currently manages more than €3 billion in assets for itself and a private investor pool, declined to reveal how much the partners paid for MEDIAN, but said the business has an annual turnover of approximately €300 million.

The business owns and manages 27 “rehabilitation and acute clinics” across 19 locations in Germany, operating over 6 million square feet of real estate. Its facilities have 6,300 patient beds and employ 4,500 staff.

The deal is expected to mark the start of an investment program in the sector for Marcol, which has historically invested across the real estate sectors, both directly, indirectly and through portfolio companies, for more than 30 years.  The firm said it had a further €500 million of investments “under consideration”.

Mark Steinberg, co-founder of Marcol, described the private care home sector as “fragmented” while his partner, Terrance Cole, said Marcol had identified an opportunity to grow the business “organically” and “through expansion and further acquisitions.” Cole noted the firms aim to grow MEDIAN into a €1 billion business over the next five years, and that “substantial funds have been committed to support growth plans”.

Advent International has extensive history in the care home sector. The firm purchased Craegmoor Healthcare, a UK care provider, in 2008 and and Casa Reha, a German nursing home operator, in 2005.

Rothschild, McKinsey, Lovells, Richard Ellis and Ernst & Young were the advisors on the deal.